Author examines John and Jackie Kennedy's marriage

Updated 2:20 pm, Friday, August 16, 2013

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Author examines John and Jackie Kennedy's marriage

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Author Christopher Andersen, who has written several books about the Kennedy family, among other celebrities, now presents a book that rounds up all the reports of the private lives of John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy to mark the upcoming 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination.

The general arc of the book flows from Jack and Jackie's 1953 marriage, which started rather pathetically — they were often apart, with John constantly cheating and even being absent for Jackie's first miscarriage — to the final year, when the couple seemed more drawn to each other.

The book opens, however, with a time-intense report on the day of Kennedy's death in Dallas as Andersen recounts events from Jacqueline's point of view, especially what she saw and did during the shooting and at Parkland Hospital.

The book then flashes back to John F. Kennedy's youth and thereafter is dominated by a thorough examination of his womanizing, from before he met Jackie and afterward into the White House years. Only in the last year, as Jackie was pregnant with Patrick, who lived less than two days after birth, did Kennedy seem to others to be devoted to his wife.

Another picture that emerges is how unhealthy the couple were, despite their glamorous public image. Both had near-death experiences. Jackie had difficulties with pregnancies, and John had numerous illness and surgeries. Both lived with pain and fatigue.

What may be less known than Kennedy's philandering was his dependence, starting during his 1960 presidential campaign, on drugs, including the “speed,” or amphetamine drug, known as Dexedrine. Both John and Jackie routinely received injections from a doctor named Max Jacobson, also called “Dr. Feelgood.” JFK was even on a speed/steroid injection for the famous, critical first televised debate with Richard Nixon.

The book's dust jacket is misleading because it hints at “new details about the Kennedys' rumored affairs — hers and well as his.” Nowhere in the book does Andersen report that Jacqueline cheated on John, although she did befriend Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis over JFK's objections.

Five decades later, a view that is emerging about John F. Kennedy is that he was hardworking politician, campaigning to the point of exhaustion for Congress and the White House but acting indifferently to his office once elected.

More Information

These Few Precious Days: The Final Year of Jack with Jackie

By Christopher Andersen

Gallery Books, $27

Andersen's book, which is based on author interviews of people who were around the Kennedys as well as previous published reports, will not dispel that view. Andersen's description of the Kennedy lifestyle makes it seem like that the presidency was a low-priority, part-time job for John F. Kennedy.